This paper describes the design, tests and preliminary results of detecting the X-ray pulsar vectors to acquire the attitude of a spacecraft by a multiple-plane sensor. Firstly, comparing to the star sensors or other traditional attitude measuring methods, a multiple-plane structure with the orthogonal vectors towards to the different directions is established and the multiple-plane sensor is set on the plane structure. Then, by measuring the photon power received by each plane and by considering the geometry relationship of the planes, the sensor is used to compute the vectors and spatial angle from a certain pulsar and to obtain the attitude of a spacecraft. Measured results show that the attitude of the spacecraft can be as much as 0.1° if vectors from several different pulsars are recognized and specified. The simulation is established and the result proves that the method is feasible in future spacecraft missions.